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The 消防団
Alongside professional fire departments, almost every Japanese municipality has a 消防団, a volunteer fire brigade. Members are residents with other jobs, legally part-time local public servants who receive a small allowance, and they turn out for fires, floods, searches for missing people and disaster response. In rural areas the brigade is often the backbone of local disaster preparedness. Membership has fallen for decades as rural populations age and more people commute to work elsewhere. Many municipalities now actively recruit women, students and newcomers; female members have increased steadily. In December, brigades and neighborhood groups in many places walk the streets at night striking 拍子木 and calling 火の用心 to remind people to be careful with fire during the dry winter. The grammar of this lesson is the grammar of occasion and limitation: にあたり, かたわら, きり, に限って and ずにすむ.